Lead, Kindly Light
97

Text: John Henry Newman (1801–1890)
Music: John B. Dykes (1823–1876)
Tune name: LUX BENIGNA

The genius of one of the great English men of letters turned a moment of homesickness into a prayerful hymn of religious insight. In these moving words, beloved among Christians everywhere, we confess our weaknesses with humility and regret as we turn to the light of heavenly guidance.

In 1833, John Henry Newman had been traveling in Europe for his health. But he became ill in Sicily because of heat and poor living conditions. He recorded, “I sat sometimes by the bedside crying bitterly, and all I could say was that I was sure God had some work for me to do in England” (John Henry Cardinal Newman, Apologia Pro Vita Sua [New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1968], 40). He decided to sail for England, thinking that his chances of recovery would be better at home. But as he embarked on the first leg of his voyage, from Palermo to Marseilles, the breezes dropped, the fog closed in, and the ship was becalmed for a week. He was homesick and seasick, frustrated at the delay. And to make matters worse, he was seized by an attack of malaria.

These were the events that brought forth “Lead, Kindly Light.” During this miserable week, his longing for England became associated in his mind with longing for heavenly light and comfort. In the past, pride and self-regard had destroyed his simple faith in divine guidance, but his hopes now rested in the Light, his secure protection until “the night is gone” (see Robert Guy McCutchan, Our Hymnody: A Manual of the Methodist Hymnal [New York: Abingdon Press, 1937], 495).

In contrast to the solitary circumstances under which the text was written, John B. Dykes stated that the tune came into his head one day in August 1865 as he was walking in the Strand, one of London’s busiest thoroughfares. He wrote the tune specifically for Newman’s words: the tune name, LUX BENIGNA, is Latin for “kindly light.”

The text originally appeared under the titles “The Pillar of the Cloud” and “Light in Darkness,” but now it is almost always referred to by its first line. Latter- day Saints should not be too quick to equate the “angel faces” of verse three with loved ones at the time of a heavenly reunion. Cardinal Newman more likely was referring to the joys and hopes that are with us in times of faith.